Spoiler Alert for Survivor 47 Episode 2, “Epic Boss Girl Move”
Survivor 47 continued with the episode “Epic Boss Girl Move.” The three tribes did a relay race to move a bag of rice back to the beach. If they get past a maze, then someone can tear open a bag of rice with a knife to retrieve a ball. They then work together to get the ball through a winding snake maze. The first two tribes on the reality competition series to finish wins immunity and fishing gear. The yellow tribe, Gata had Andy Rueda stabbed the rice bag as the rest of the tribe cheered. Rachel LaMont was one of them, and she lingered behind when Gata moved to the next portion of the course. She leaned on the bag to watch the other castaways as she sneakily pocketed rice.
Gata won first place, but Jeff Probst kindly called out Rachel. “Did I see you putting some rice in your pocket?” he asked her. “You didn’t see anything, Jeff,” she answered with a smile. “Unbelievable,” he responded. “Empty your pockets.” She did so while making a great point. “I’m trying to play smarter,” she said. Rachel is right and stealing rice should be allowed.
‘Survivor’ Castaways Should Be Able to Steal Rice for Health Reasons
The Survivor castaways have to build a community in Fiji stranded on an island. The CBS show has the cast live off what they can find because of that. Most seasons have at least one person talking about the mental and physical struggle of living on so little food. Then there are the seasons where starvation is highlighted with finalists looking at their emaciated bodies in a full-length mirror. Probst announced at the Survivor 46 finale Charlie Davis lost the most weight with 22 lbs.
This is often used as one of the many things to set Survivor apart from other reality show. This must be the hardest and look how far these people are pushing themselves in hopes to win $1 million! But the show doesn’t need its cast to starve for this to be true. Some seasons start with rice and some tribes earn chickens as a reward. Times have changed where Survivor is shorter and the food rewards aren’t as lavish. The game is still the same. You must outwit, outplay, and outlast. Other countries like Australia start the cast with rice and beans more food than in the United States’ most generous seasons.
Stealing is already an aspect of the game. If a player hands an idol to someone else and wants it back, then they might be out of luck. We’ve seen original idols holders lose their idol this way. Jesse Lopez from season 43 played an idol originally founded by Jeanine Zheng. His closest ally, Cody Assenmacher also trusted him with his idol and he used it to take him out. Other stealthy behaviors happen on the beach. Some castaways look into each other’s bags if they suspect someone has an idol or advantage. The paranoia runs high during the game and these strategies help castaways outlast their competition.
Survivor claims to let things play out naturally in the tribes. The same episode showed Teeny Chirichillo sneaking with Kishan Patel to look at Rome Cooney’s hidden advantage. The problem is, he found them, and they all had to play it off. Rome is at the bottom of the tribe, and he could use Teeny’s betrayal and Kishan knowing his secret to help or hurt his game. Production didn’t stop that from happening and we got a great scene. The same episode also showed Andy on Gata finding the beware advantage, putting it back, Sam Phalen taking it and turning it into an idol with Anika Dhar.
The point is weird things happen on Survivor all the time. “I respect the try,” Probst told Rachel then laughed. It’s absolutely a respectable move. The spirit of the game is to identify what you want and figure out how to get it. Stranded people on an island can find food, and that doesn’t go against the premise of the show. Lastly, the starvation of the cast is just one aspect of the game. The new era stopped giving rice to tribes with a shorter filming schedule. It came across as one way for production to argue the game is just as hard if not harder than longer seasons. Many fans and former castaways don’t believe that. Some believe these changes were due to budget cuts more than the game. So let them eat rice!
Survivor can be streamed on Paramount Plus.
